The present invention relates to latchable garment hangers. More particularly, the invention relates to a garment hanger having a hook member which may alternately swivel freely relative to the hanger body, or be fixed against swivelling movement relative to the hanger body, as desired.
The vast majority of women and children's clothing displayed in retail establishments is hung on lightweight, generally plastic, hangers, which have swivelling hooks. These types of hangers are preferred by retailers for shopper convenience. However, manufacturers find such swivel hook hangers disadvantageous because the hooks have a tendency to become tangled with each other, thereby rendering shipping, storage, and handling of the garments in bulk more difficult. Heretofore, garments have generally been shipped from the manufacturer on one piece non-rotatable plastic garment hangers; the garments are usually then transferred to a swivel hook hanger at the retail outlet, and the shipping hangers discarded.
Clearly, a dual purpose hanger acceptable to both manufacturers (shippers) and retailers would reduce hanger wastage and contribute toward reducing or a least minimizing increases in clothing costs.
My U.S. Pat. No. 4,185,768, issued Jan. 29, 1980, and my U.S. Patent Application No. 111,893, filed Jan. 14, 1980, describe latching members adapted for use with certain types of known hangers. Essentially, these latching members comprise pieces which are insertable in a window opening of the hanger and act to wedge the shaft of the hook member against swivel movement. The latching piece can be inserted in the window opening of the hanger by the hanger manufacturer prior to shipment of the hangers to clothing manufacturers, and removed by the retailer to restore swivelling action.
While the latching members disclosed in my aforementioned patent and patent application are simple and effective, there remain certain possible commercial and economic disadvantages that are avoided by the latching mechanism disclosed herein.
First, they are applicable only to hangers in which the window opening and flattened portion of the hook shaft within are large enough to enable the latching member to function; they are not applicable to the small window type of hanger with detent and washer means for hook retention. However, the latter type of hanger, comprising a substantial part of the commercial market, is compatible with the latching means disclosed herein.
Second, in the large window type, to which the previously disclosed latching means are applicable, the flat segment of the hook shaft must either be exactly in the plane of the hanger body (U.S. Pat. No. 4,185,768), or else exactly perpendicular to the plane of the hanger body (Application Ser. No. 111,893). Although accurate swaging may be readily accomplished in either case, manufacturing costs are increased and mis-strikes will occur, resulting in hangers saleable for ordinary use but not for latchable use. Such is not the case for the latching means described herein, no such accuracy being required.
Third, as noted, latching members previously disclosed are designed to latch the hanger hook only in the plane of the hanger body. While this is desirable and sufficient for mass handling, storage, and shipping, there are other latchable positions of the hanger hook which may be desired, for example in the window or interior display of garments by whole-salers and retailers. The invention described herein provides for latching the hanger hook in any position.
Fourth, the latching means previously disclosed will, by their very nature, most likely be molded out of petroleum based plastics and, upon their necessary removal by the retailer, will be wastefully discarded. The latching member disclosed herein will not require the use of petroleum plastics, will not require removal (saving labor), will remain for use as may be desired by the ultimate garment consumer, and will thus eliminate or reduce waste.
An alternative to my above-mentioned prior invention is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,074,838, issued Feb. 21, 1978 to Blasnik et al. The Blasnik et al patent discloses an intricate garment hanger requiring special molding techniques. A corded channel in the hanger receives a hook, which is axially displaceable between a fixed position and a swivelling position. The tooling required to achieve this result is expensive and may result in lessened strength of the hanger.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,191,770, issued June 29, 1975, to Zuckerman discloses an arrangement for locking a group of garment hangers together for shipping or storage. An alignment rod is inserted through the aligned window openings of the the hangers; the rod acts as a wedge against the flattened portion of the hanger hook stem or shaft to prevent swivelling movement of the hook. The Zuckerman device is not designed or intended for use with individual hangers having clothing hung thereon.
The present invention constitutes a significant improvement over heretofore known or available hanger latching devices. The hanger latching mechanism of the present invention comprises an integral part of the hanger; it permits the hanger to be readily and repeatable latched (in any position) and unlatched by the shipper, the retailer and the customer.